Once upon a time, there was a fabulous teen librarian who liked to read and to cook about as much as she loved to travel, and nearly as much as she loved a case of the terribles and her crusty sidekick, Le Creuset...

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Monday, May 9, 2011

I had my first experience with some hardcore tailgating on Saturday at the New England Revolution game, courtesy of the lovely Lady Bean, master vegetarian chef and soccer star behind the Asphalt Kitchen! Why was it hardcore? We saw sideways lightning on the way in. It was cold. Chris was not wearing pants! There was thunder and much rain. Benny Feilhaber has bright blue eyes! Wait, what? That's the beerita talking! I digress. Luckily, the storm cleared up in time for us to enjoy a delicious dinner of Thai Crunch Salad (to die for, try it immediately) and my (just okay) Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers. Behold Bean's photo:

This is how food photography is done.

My shrimp and pineapple skewers were okay - I didn't cut the pineapple down to be the same size/level as the shrimp, so the cooking was uneven and some parts, while cooked, never attained the crispy grilledness you want from, you know, a grill. The grill, by the way, was awesome. Well played, Asphalt Kitchen. HOWEVER. It was post tailgate when I was contemplating what to do with the extra marinade that I'd left in the fridge that a genius idea hit me. It went something like this.

"Self, you know what is really good? Peanut butter and jelly. But self, you have all these three pounds of strawberries you bought with hungry eyes after you entered a grocery store to buy water after a 6 mile run turned into an 8 mile run because you can't follow directions. And you have all this peanut sauce. What if you dip the strawberries into the chilled sauce?"

Genius was born in my mouth. This works well as a marinade, but I think it also does double duty as a dipping sauce. It especially works well with fruit because of the innate sweetness of the peanuts and coconut, and the added smoky yum of the cayenne and other spices and the acidity of the lime juice manages to balance it out while putting it over the top. Give it a go; next time I'm trying fruit skewers only marinated in this stuff and then grilled. If you try it before me let me know what you think!